Reduced and anonymized dataset for the paper "Beyond the ivory tower: Measuring and explaining academic engagement with journalists, politicians and industry representatives among Swiss professors"
Authors: Adrian Rauchfleisch, Mike Schäfer & Dario Siegen
Date created: 2021/05/06 
Contact information: adrian.rauchfleisch@gmail.com
The paper can be downloaded here: (url will be added later)
If you are interested in the complete dataset please contact us directly.

The data (plos_data.RDS) is available as a data frame with the following variables (columns) and can be opened in R:

The following variables are available [column name in data frame]:
mode 2 practitioners [mode2_pract]: "Scientists should work together with practitioners outside of science." (1: strongly disagree; 5: strongly agree)
duty to inform public [duty_inform]: "Scientists have a duty to inform the public about their research." (1: strongly disagree; 5: strongly agree)
attitude activity [attitude_activity]: Enjoyment in engaging in different activities, i.e."Explaining my research and its results to the public." (1: strongly disagree; 5: strongly agree), 4 items, α = 0.77
negative extrinsic rewards [neg_extr]: Concerns, i. e. "I may receive critical reactions from peers." (1: strongly disagree; 5: strongly agree), 2 items, α = .72
communication self-efficacy [self_efficacy]: Perceived ability to interact with non-scientists, i.e. their skills. (1: strongly disagree; 5: strongly agree), 4 items, α = .81
reservations time [res_time]: "I lose valuable research time." (1: strongly disagree; 5: strongly agree)
research experience [years_research]: Number of years in research (count)
publications normalized [pub_normalized]: Number of publications ("So far in your career, how many scientific publications have you authored or coauthored approximately?"), count normalized by discipline (divided by maximum number).
management position (yes) [management_postition]: "Do you currently occupy a management position in your institution (e. g. department head, dean, director)?" 1=yes, 0=no
Communication training [com_training]: Have you ever had formal training in public communication or media skills? 1=yes, 0=no
traditional media consumption [media_trad]: „How closely do you follow the media […]?" (1: Not closely at all; 5: Very closely), 2 items, α = 0.73
social media consumption [media_soc]: "How closely do you follow […] social media?" (1: Not closely at all; 5: Very closely), 2 items, α = 0.93
autonomy (yes) [autonomy]: "Do you have to seek approval from your institution before talking to a journalist?" 1=no, 0=yes
support media relations [sup_med]: "I inform the media relations department of my university about interesting research I conduct" (1: strongly disagree; 5: strongly agree)
contacts with Journalists [cont_journ]: "Please estimate: How many times, in the past 12 months, have you had professional contact with the following types of actors?" (count – 0-100)
contacts with Politicians [cont_pol]: "Please estimate: How many times, in the past 12 months, have you had professional contact with the following types of actors?" (count – 0-100)
contacts with Industry [cont_ind]: "Please estimate: How many times, in the past 12 months, have you had professional contact with the following types of actors?" (count – 0-100)































